Certain refrigerator appliances utilize sealed systems for cooling chilled chambers of the refrigerator appliances. A typical sealed system includes an evaporator and a fan, the fan generating a flow of air across the evaporator and cooling the flow of air. The cooled air is then provided through an opening into the chilled chamber to maintain the chilled chamber at a desired temperature. Air from the chilled chamber is circulated back through a return duct to be re-cooled by the sealed system during operation of the refrigerator appliance, maintaining the chilled chamber at the desired temperature.
Certain refrigerators appliances also include multiple fresh food and/or freezer compartments configured for maintaining different temperatures for storing different types of food and drink. For example, a conventional bottom mount refrigerator has a fresh food chamber positioned above a freezer chamber. In addition, such a refrigerator may further include a convertible chamber positioned between the fresh food chamber and the freezer chamber. The convertible chamber, for example, may be adjusted between a conventional freezer chamber temperature and a fresh food chamber temperature (e.g., between 0° F. and 37° F.).
However, achieving different temperatures in each of the chambers of such refrigerator appliances typically requires a separate evaporator for each chamber. In this regard, a single compressor may drive refrigerant through a switching mechanism to an evaporator configured for cooling a single chamber at a time. However, additional evaporators result in added costs, more complicated assembly, and a more complex refrigerant plumbing configuration. In addition, complicated switching mechanisms may be required or operational limitations may arise, e.g., only a single chamber may be cooled at a single time due to the shared compressor.
Accordingly, a refrigerator appliance including multiple chambers sharing an improved refrigeration system would be useful. More particularly, a refrigeration system that can provide cooling air flow to multiple chambers from a single evaporator would be especially beneficial.